The Moon

[Ironshot]

"Assuming you are the owner of this establishment or authorized to accept deliveries, just sign this pad so I can quit hauling these robotics parts behind me," Pyria replies to the young woman who entered the room from somewhere in the back as she gestures towards the relevant pad with her right hand.  Looks like this lady's been exposed to more cultures than most of the people on this dirtball, she thinks to herself as she notices the young woman hasn't reacted to the flames or nudity yet.  "Once the delivery is taken care of, perhaps you could point me towards a decent quality shield generator for my ship," Pyria adds as she creates a scale model of said ship made out of flames in the palm of her left hand.

[Zelth]

Max frowns a little at the suggestion of him stealing tech, but goes back to looking for the regulators. A few seconds of quickly scanning his eyes over everything on the indicated side he finds his desired item. Perfect. He picks it up and heads back towards the shop front noticing a faint glow from beneath the doorway. Max opens the door and the fiery figure immediately catches his attention.Hmm, a being of an elemental race don't see many of her kind around here, I guess that's her ship. He thinks to himself noting the small flamey model of a ship in her hand. In his mind he scans through a list of all the races he had ever encountered only to come to the conclusion that hers was not on his list and nor was the ship for that matter. Not wishing to seem as though he was staring he shifts his gaze to the stack of parts behind her. Must be a courier. He concludes as he continues his wait.

Upon noticing the fiery glow and a slight increase in temperature from the flames, the small dragon bot sticks his head up to investigate. After making a brief observation of where the fire he detected was coming from he settles back down in the bag not showing much interest.

[Bowhead]

Any sensors designed to detect such thing would likely begin screeching radioactivity warnings as the immense vessel approached the terran moon; a thick cloud of lethal gas trailing behind it's powerful engines. It took mere minutes for it to halt roughly a kilometer above the surface of the celestial body, no hails given, and no IFF present upon it as it began to spray green arcs of energy out onto the lunar surface... the arcs wrapping and coiling around the chunks of crust they blew free and transporting them directly to the waiting cargo bay of the hulking, darkly-coloured monstrosity. Any who were unintelligent enough to wander into the beams being sent out onto the uninhabitted stretch of land it was destroying would find themselves reduced quickly to basic molecules their remains harvested the same as any other resource.

[scythian]

A two sweater cargo ship approached the moon colony. The docking tower hailed the ship but all they got in reply was an automated landing request. Something felt off to the people working the tower but there was a cargo shipment due for arrival today so they granted landing permissions. The ship moved and hovered above a landing pad which was covered by a glass dome. The dome slid open and the ship landed. As soon as it touched down the dome closed and the room was re-pressurized. In the back of the ship the cargo ramp lowered. The ship was filled with a thick white fog that poured out of the cargo-bay. A pair of glowing red eyes shone through the fog. There were loud footfalls on metal as the figure starting walking out of the ship. A tall thin man with blue skin emerged from the fog. waving the smoke away from his face and coughing. He was wearing some sort of headset with red goggles. He walked down the ramp and looked to his left. Stopping abruptly at what he saw. "Rick! You better come see this!" another man, This one short and plump walked out of the ship. "What is it this time Ralf? There's always something with yo-" The man stopped suddenly when he saw what his partner was looking at. On the bottom of the left main engine was a large, white, bulbous pimple-like organism stuck to the engine. What is that..?. "I don't know...Go poke it!" The man named Rick pushed the other one close to it. Ralf slowly edged closer to the blob. Giving it a gentle poke. The blob had a sturdy outer-shell, He gave it another poke with more confidence this time. Must be some kind of dried coolant leakage. Suddenly within the blob a red glow started. Faint at first but it soon glowed stronger until the entire pimple was bright red. The out-shell began to shake and then it burst apart. The two were coated with a goo the cocoon had been filled with. A figure fell out, slumped on the ground.





The figured stirred and shook his head, Then he stood up. The figure was tall and had a mess of tentacles on his head, Puss dripped off his leather trench coat. Zanthrax rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. Turning his head and looking at the two freighters as if he just realized they were there. A big grin broke out on his face and he turned to face them. He raised his left hand. Revealing the long blade like claw that took the place of his index finger. The blade began to glow a searing orange. "Careful, I'm contagious". With a swift motion Zanthrax moved his left hand and pierced the freighter named Ralf through the chest, Getting it up under the rib cage. With his left hand Zanthrax pushed Ralf off the blade. He looked at the glowing orange wound in his chest in horror as it began to spread and eat away at his flesh. He began to scream as it spread through his body and melted it away. While that happened Zanthrax turned to Rick and with his left hand slapped him hard with a back hand. Causing him to fall over. With a wide grin and a quick motion Zanthrax was on his victim. Puncturing the blade right through the center of the mans neck. The same process began to happen to him as the corrosive toxin ate away at his body.







Zanthrax moved to Ralf's remains which was now a mushy pile of goopy flesh. With a quick move of his lefthand he grabbed a blue bead from the pile with his thumb and middle finger. The bead had been the mans cerebellum, altered by the toxins. With his left hand he pulled out a black loop of some gel material that had other blue beads embedded into it. He pressed Ralfs brain bead in to the chain and moved to Ricks remains and did the same. Looking at the two bodies Zanthrax smiled. Thanks for the ride boys. He put the chain in to his coat and checked out his reflection in the side of the ship. Slicking back the tentacles on his head to a neat style. The puss from the cocoon acting like a hair gel. Smiling at his reflection with his crooked and uneven teeth. He began to hum. He walked along the ship, with his right side facing the ship, He dragged the glowing blade along the hull. Leaving an uneven burning trail into the hull. The trail began to crack out to the rest of the ship, Leaving more glowing trails as the ship decayed and started to burn.





Zanthrax approached the exit of the landing pad he turned and looked at the burning wreck of the decayed and smoldering ship. As he finished humming  he reached in to his coat with his right hand and pulled out a pair of black sunglasses and placed them on his face. The flames of the wreck reflecting in the glasses. Zanthrax looked up through the glass dome at planet earth with a wicked grin.I got a good feelin' about this place. turning he exited the hanger, Laughing with a sick amused tone and slipped away into the colony.

[Zelth]

Max detects the faint vibrations of something. Probably something big. Either way it wasn't an immediate threat to the colonists, but it wouldn't hurt to see what it is. Max silently gives his ship the order to locate the source of the vibration.

A couple of seconds later the ship sends Max the location of a large ship taking a chunk out of the surface of the moon.

"Something has come to my attention." Max flicks the credit chip onto the counter and scoops up the parts he wished to purchase. "Keep the change." He half runs out of the door.

Max's ship was already waiting for him outside of the market area.

Once aboard he drops his bag down and the the parts and runs over to the controls. Cannon slips out of the bag to sit himself on the edge of the control console. "Right... Lets see what that ship's commander is playing at..." He directs the ship towards the far bigger one...

[Ironshot]

He sure seems to be in a hurry, Pyria thinks to herself as she sends five tracker flames after the shop's customer.  "I should see if he needs any help.  I'll leave you to deal with the parts shipment," she says to the apparent shop keeper while keeping track of her flames with a portion of her focus.  Seeing the man enter his ship, Pyria casually glides to her own ship only to freeze in the airlock on seeing the moon eating ship through the 'eyes' of her tracker flames.

[Bowhead]

As the other pilots would draw closer to the ship, they would become immediately away both that it seemed to be slowly growing larger, inch by inch, and that it's exterior was coated in a writhing, black mass of mechanical limbs. No identify friend-foe signal was being sent, or indeed, any data at all. Were their vessels capable of it, they would immediately notice that while the kilometer-long ship had quarters for crew, that there were no living entities aboard, and no defined bridge or cockpit. Further examination of the swelling vessel would reveal numerous nodes running across the hull's exterior, each causing a visible magnetic signiature. Whatever race had made the ship, they had both been highly advanced... and knowing on how to disable other ships quickly. They looked to be emitters for an Electro-Magnetic Pulse device of some sort... a large one.

As it continued to harvest, the ship slowly moved forward, into the crater to get a better grasp on the material is was flaying away; extracting and promptly integrating it into it's hull and systems with alarming speed. It was already half-obscurred by the crater it had burned into the surface of the moon.

[Zelth]

Noting the lack of information being sent by the mysterious ship Max guesses that it probably wouldn't respond to the usual attempts at contact. The silent ones never do... Instead he watches it attempting to make sense of what it's doing. Lack of identifying information sent, probably means space pirates, but then where would space pirates get a ship this size? And why haven't they attacked me for getting this close?

Max's ship analyzes all the information it gains simply through observation, not yet attempting to see if any life is aboard.

"What is it doing?" The dragon bot dangles upside down from it's perch above the main screen.

The ship's AI hologram appears suddenly taking the dragon by surprise.

Almost loosing his grip he scrambles to regain his grasp. "I HATE IT WHEN YOU DO THAT!"

She folds her arms and scowls at the dragon. "Stop leaving your claw marks everywhere." Suddenly taking a much more polite stance she turns towards Max. "The ship appears to be extracting materials to further it's own growth. I cannot yet tell if anyone on board is ordering it to do so."

Max picks up on her subtle hint for permission to scan the ship. "Why do you always ask for permission to search for life signs? It kinda comes under the threat territory which is what you were supposed to be looking for."

"Sorry Sir, it just doesn't seem polite to scan a fellow machine like that." After a moment she speaks again. "I cannot detect any life signs on board. The ship does have defensive systems which include a means of disabling us Sir."

"In that case a different approach may be in order." Max's eyes glow as he extends his audio through the ship's outbound comms system. His voice takes on a tinny echo, not that any non mechanical being would be able to understand his next words anyway. "Machine, identify yourself." Not yet knowing if the machine he is addressing is sentient he waits hoping that his own variable signal would prompt a response.

[Bowhead]

The green beams fading away, the vessel slowly pulled out of the crater before rotating to face those speaking to it. There came a brief pause before a massive sphere of energy exploded from the ship; likely overloading any electrical systems within range temporarily. However, it did not appear to be an actual attack as it did not affect anything critical. Perhaps it was a warning of sorts?

That would be the most logical conclusion, but only, however, if Max wasn't paying attention to his data files. Should he have noticed such things, he would have found a standard .ogg vorbis audio file in any available databanks. This audio file would be quite advanced in manufacture, having been setup to fully utilize three-dimensional sound... steady ticks coming from many directions at a rate a scientist may recognize as the natural "ticking" of the electrons of a hydrogen atom flipping. That, backed by the sounds of many human languages stating a single greeting, a woman speaking to a child, and several examples of human music... all layered in such a way that permitted isolation of a single signiature.
Dependant on Max's intelligence, or that of his machine compatriots, what the other ship had sent them might take a while to be understood... it had sent them coordinates using pulsars and their audible location as reference points to the target area... represented by Max himself. This was the exact method mankind had used to fling their own light into the stars upon the gold disc of the Voyager probe so long ago... great minds seemed to think alike, or perhaps... that was how it had found the Sol system. Whatever the case, it clearly didn't speak any organic languages, perhaps it would speak the language of machines, however, that of mathematics?

[Ironshot]

Watching events unfold from the safety of the marketplace hangar, Pyria realizes there is very little she can do unless a fight breaks out.  I suppose the important thing is that the moon eater isn't eating anymore.  I'll stick around for a little longer just to see how this guy handles the moon eater though, she thinks to herself as she uses her power over fire at long range to upgrade the five tracker flames into fire clones and positions them near the weapons of the friendly ship.  Just as the clones get into position, a strange portal appears and spits out an ovoid space shuttle with side mounted cannons of some sort.  "This place isn't the safest to be right now, what's your name and, if I may ask, why are you here?  My name's Pyria and my clones are providing support in the event of a battle while I stay safe at the Lunar settlement on the other side of the moon," Pyria states through the nearest fire clone.

"Ellie of the Digital World and my adoptive mother Ellementiamon also of the Digital World.  As for why we are here, we have worse threats in the Digital World and I am in need of some medical attention," Ellie replies as the Digi-gate closes behind her.

"Check your nav computer, I'm sending coordinates for the settlement now.  No medical care available officially, but I have an ability or two that might suit your needs," Pyria tells the new woman while sending said coordinates.

[TιɳƙҽɾႦҽʅʅ_RҽႦσσƚҽԃ 2]

(( Can I have an update ))

[TιɳƙҽɾႦҽʅʅ_RҽႦσσƚҽԃ 2]

(( Nevermind.. Since I presume everyone left Tink's Workshop..))

With the purchases made, and new arrived parts, Tink examined the large sums of units in her servos. She smirked, then headed to the back of the shop to store the money. Going into the strongbox, or the 'piggybank' others like to call it, Tink returned back to her project. Removing a large sheet, revealed from underneath was an oversized mech robot. If standing, it could stand from around 9 feet. Opening the control panel door, Tink began to work on the wiring once again. She excited to give this creation a go, due to the buyer. 10 million units! That's enough to buy me a new ship. she thought to herself.

[Zelth]

((And I have remembered why I could not reply to this thread... I'm not sure how I can interact with a character that cannot talk, so I am just going to have to think of something to send out and then have him leave for the sake of my own sanity...))

"Really?! It overloaded the shields just to give us a file?!" The AI complains as she restarts the sield generator.
Max immediately checks for the file. "Hmm, file type seems familiar..." After a while Max had extracted the information. "Well we know where this machine is from now. Let's see if we can get it to understand why it shouldn't eat the moon..." Max simply sends out the coordinates of the moon and images of the various colonies inhabiting it.
"Let's hope it actually values the life of other beings not just it's own."
"Well I can't see communication continuing and it has stopped taking chunks out of the moon so unless it does anything else we can get back to base." Max turns the ship to leave.

[Bowhead]

Another wave of electro-magnetic energy swept out from the titanic vessel, followed soon after by it pulling a rotation that would have snapped most ships in half and heading right for Max's vessel with no signs of slowing down. As it drew closer it continued to emit regular pulses, trying to extract data copies directly from the ship's A.I. through this unusual downlink; most regarding the synthetic's speech and comprehension programs. The process would likely not be unlike having a dentist casting one's mouth for dentures; unpleasant, but not damaging or painful to the A.I..

[Zelth]

Max looks rather alarmed at the large ship heading right for them. "What's it doing?"
The A.I. ((I will think of a name for her eventually...)) starts to try to lock the large machine out of her system but noticing it wasn't actually doing any harm she eases up and lets it have what it's looking for. "I think it's trying to learn how to speak..." She continues to watch her own files closely.
Max watches too.
The little dragon bot keeps his eyes on the large ship not that he could do much else.